Penley Graves
"A mind is a terrible thing to waste." -- Arthur Fletcher Penley Rott, known to his classmates as Penley''' Graves due to his protected identity, is a pureblood wizard hailing from a wizarding community outside of Bradford, England. He is a vastly intelligent person who has difficulty relating to others his age. Curious, analytical and brilliant, Penley's ambition and drive to discover drives him to lengths others would never even think to explore. In 2017, Penley started his education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. While initially somewhat confrontational and difficult to get along with, Penley has grown into a more agreeable person as time goes on. He has few friends, preferring to spend time with those whose intellect matches his own. Biography Penley was born on 03 January, 2006, the son of Hestia Carrow and Barnabus Rott. Barnabus was a dark wizard and alchemist and it is unknown how the two met or the circumstances under which they had a child, though it is known they did not marry. Some time in 2009, Arcturus Rott--Penley's grandfather--escaped from Azkaban and reunited with his son. Some time after, Barnabus died during a duel with auror Harry Potter and, shortly after, Arcturus murdered Hestia, scarring young Penley by accident in the process. Arcturus was arrested and young Penley taken in by the Ministry. Harry, fearing what would become of the boy if he were to be sent to his Carrow relatives (specifically his aunt Flora) so the decision was made to give the boy to Geoffrey Wesker, a former servant of Hestia's. Harry swore Wesker to secrecy and sent them into hiding in Bradford. As Penley grew older, he found he had no recollection of his mother or father, though Wesker told him what had happened. Penley grew up in a small house in the country just outside of Bradford, where he grew up in the care of Wesker and his 21 dogs (all of which were adopted). He spent most of his time reading as he grew up, uninterested in sports or social interaction. Always a picky and irritable child, Penley was prone to angry outbursts. Music was his only outlet. Mr. Wesker taught him to play the violin and he took to it easily and eagerly. Music theory has always been a hobby of Penley's and for years, he dreamed of composing a mathematically perfect symphony. His only friends were the dogs living with them and they were some of his only joys in life. He has always been very protective of dogs, who he claims to enjoy the company of and respect more than he does most humans. When he was eleven years old, Penley received his acceptance letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He and Mr. Wesker traveled to Diagon Alley to purchase his school equipment that summer and Penley spent most of the summer reading and preparing for the term that lay ahead. Before the start of term, he was visited by Harry Potter, who talked with Penley about changing his name; the name Rott was an infamous one due to his grandfather's killing spree and the Carrow name, well...that was almost a death sentence at Hogwarts. Penley chose to change his name for school, choosing the name "Graves" out of a macabre sense of humor. Notable Accomplishments Year 1 (2017-2018) * Started his education at Hogwarts and was sorted into Ravenclaw House. * Penley scored the highest in his year in Transfiguration and scored in at least the top 5 in every other class, with the notable exception of Flying, where he barely passed. * Beat Gestebald Dodderidge in a duel when the boy tried to tease him just before Christmas vacation, thus deterring any further attempts at aggravating him. * Explored a good portion of the castle and began creating a map covering the various areas he explored. Year 2 (2018-2019) * Penley continued his exploration of the castle and expanding his map. Year 3 (2019-2020) * In the third week of the school year, Penley discovered an ancient chamber beneath the Dungeons, where he believes the Founders lived during the construction of Hogwarts Castle. This would become his "Chamber of Solitude", in his own words. * Managed to get into Salazar Slytherin's chambers, where he met a painting of a brilliant young man named Thomas. The two struck up a sort of friendship. * Gave Rose the mysterious Grimoir, as well as a small booklet on living with Werewolf Scars for Riley Pilgrim. * When Cary came down with Moss Brain, Penley agreed to help by introducing Rose to Thomas, who identified the magical malady based on a sample Rose brought him. Penley accompanied Rose and Riley to the caves in the Forbidden Forest to recover the Moondew and aided them in fighting the Cloaker in the tunnels. '''Summer of 2020 * Penley received a letter from Rose, detailing Cary's condition after his car accident, begging him to help figure out a way to help Cary recover. Penley would later apologize that he could not have been of more help, though he did muse that he was "thankful good things can happen to good people". Year 4 (2020-2021) * Penley has continued his explorations and his meetings with Thomas. * Turned out with many other students to watch the Gryffindor Quidditch tryouts in order to support Rose's tryouts. * Saw Rose looking over old runic scripts and saw through her lie that it was for an "extracurricular activity". Somehow managed to smuggle a book from the Restricted Section he thought she might find useful. * Took Rose to meet with Thomas to ask about the poison Rose had found in McGonagall's wine. Discussed his past and his grandfather Arcturus, making plans with her to go on an undercover mission to Durmstrang to see if they can uncover any information about Arcturus' strange magic. Physical Appearance Penley is tall, thin man with pale skin and dark, curly hair. He's got a few scars he received from the incident that claimed his mother's life. He's a relatively handsome young man with soft features, deep blue eyes and an intense aura many of his peers find off-putting. When he dresses casually, he tends to dress simply, in sweaters or button-down shirts and jeans. He favors wearing scarves and long coats. Personality Although he puts forth a cold-hearted and abrasive exterior, Penley does have a kind, caring side. Despite claiming to not care about his fellow students, he clearly has concern for some of them or their well-being. His assistance in saving Cary Nordegraf from the Moss Brain, is an example of this. He put himself in harm's way in order to save a person he barely knows. He is most protective toward Rose Granger-Weasley. One quality that he lacks entirely is tact, which is one of the main reasons that he is disliked so heavily by so many people. He often doesn't notice when his remarks or observations about others offend them and he has trouble determining when others are joking. Additionally, Penley has a slightly manipulative streak and is not above taking advantage of others to accomplish what he considers to be the greater good. He has a tendency to subject his roommates to "experiments". He seems to have a sense of humor, though it is somewhat sarcastic and can be quite dark. He is amused, most notably, by the stupidity of others, especially in comparison to himself. He is known to correct others, which tends to annoy them. He doesn't like people and offers his respect and friendship only to those he considers to be "on his level". Thus, he has very, very few friends. He considers Rose and Oz Uhmlander to be the only people at Hogwarts "worth talking to", and his protective nature extends to their friends by the virtue of them being friends of his friends. Magical Abilities and Skills Penley is an incredibly talented wizard with skills and knowledge beyond those of his peers, except perhaps Rose. He possesses a unique magical talent he calls "Psychometry", which allows him to use vague supernatural imprints to recreate past events in his mind's eye. He's taking Divination to help him fine-tune this ability use it (he can't really control it as of now) but finds the whole subject to be ridiculous. He's also not that great with Magical Creatures, though he finds them fascinating. * Herbology: '''Penley has a broad knowledge of Herbology and their uses. * '''Lore: Penley is something of a loremaster, with knowledge of many strange, forgotten things. He has a love of history and artifacts, and thirsts for forgotten magic. If he doesn't know the answer of the top of his head, he has ready access to ample resources to help him efficiently find the correct solution. * Potions: Penley's natural tendency for fine detail helps him with Potions, a field in which he greatly excels. * Runes: Penley loves runes and cryptography. * Transfiguration: This analytical, difficult branch of magic is Penley's specialty and he regularly scores near the top in his entire year, usually tied with Rose throughout the year. Major Relationships Mr. Wesker Geoffrey Wesker is Penley's caretaker, who raised him in the country house outside of Bradford. Wesker taught Penley a lot about observation and deductive reasoning. Wesker was not a cruel man, nor was he a kind one. He was simply a caretaker and that was that. Rose Granger-Weasley Rose Granger-Weasley holds a certain fascination for Penley. She is shown to be just as brilliant as he is and she understands the unbridled thrill of discovery. The girl is an enigma, the one thing in the school Penley does not understand and cannot predict. She's this blind spot in his mind and that makes her interesting. He is shown to care for her, going so far as to risk his own life to save the life of her friend. Penley is undeniably attracted to her amazing mind, and more recently, has found her to be exciting, brilliant, generous, gentle, accepting and, while he doesn't tend to notice the opposite sex physically (he's got better things to worry about), he finds that he notices her in that way as well; he notices how she bites her lip when she's thinking, how she moves, how she talks with her whole body, how her hair drapes in front of her face when she's writing. There's no doubt in his mind that if he were to have a relationship with a girl, he'd want it to be Rose. She's interesting, and that is the highest compliment he can pay someone. Newt Gudgeon Peregrine "Newt" Gudgeon is one of Penley's roommates and a friend of Rose's. Penley deduced that Newt was a werewolf near instantly and, as a favor to Rose, has decided to keep the young werewolf's secret. Quintus Selwyn Penley regards Quintus as a lifeform far, far below him and worth approximately none of his time. However, he has noticed Quintus' proclivity toward giving Rose a hard time and intends to do something about that. Trivia * Penley takes his coffee black, with two sugars. * Enjoys dancing and is capable of, at the very least, waltzing and a passable jazz pirouette. * Fascinated with bees and the art of beekeeping. * Loves the works of William Shakespeare. * Can play the violin and classical piano. * Penley has shown himself to be a surprisingly adept swimmer. Category:Males Category:Pureblood Category:Class of 2024 Category:Characters Category:Ravenclaw House